Do you have question on accessibility?
Learn about what accessibility means to you as a web editor
What is accessibility, who it impacts and why it is important
Web Accessibility
Website and web technologies designed for people with disabilities to have equal access to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web.
Who it impacts
1 in 4 Americans identify as having one or more disabilities.
- Age-related impairments
- Health conditions
- Learning disabilities
- Situational limitations
- Temporary impairments
Unless documents are made accessible, they’re not usable to people who require assistive technologies and provide barriers for people who don’t require assistive technologies.
- Slows browser load time.
- PDF readers aren’t available on all devices.
- Not optimal for mobile. (Pinch and zoom)
- Users can’t act on your content.
- Documents should be optimized for search.
Why your role is so important
Beyond providing the best user experience for our viewers, all institutions that receive federal funding are required to ensure all content is accessible.
Under Section 508 of the Rehabilitiation Act of 1973, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information comparable to the access available to others.
There are approximately 10,500 lawsuits in the U.S. every year.
GRCC has worked twice with the Office of Civil Rights on issues on our site that have been flagged. This included PDFs each time.
As an editor, it is your job to make sure your pages and documents are up-to-date and accessible.
Learn about using a webpage vs. a PDF
Does it need to be a document?
Review your documents and ask yourself if this information would be better as a webpage. Benefits to having a webpage instead of a PDF:
- Webpages are accessible with minimal work required.
- Creating content as webpages is SEO friendly.
- Allows information to be edited quickly and easily.
- You know how that old document keeps cropping up
- Doesn’t slow browser time.
- Isn’t device-dependent.
Learn how you can make sure your pages and content are accessible
Resources to Learn Accessibility
Microsoft Office Accessibility Video Trainings
See video tutorials for:
WebAIM Training Articles
Online Workshops
We're here to help
Submit the document to webhelp@grcc.edu two weeks in advance and we can help you determine if the information should be a document or a webpage and assist you with creating accessible content.
Did you know
Working on material with Communications’ design team? The design team can create an accessible document for you. Just let them know that your material is going to be posted on our website.